Brooks Koepka speaks at the Quickie Quote Area during a practice round of the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park on August 4, 2020 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America)

Defending champion Brooks Koepka reckons Shane Lowry can upset his hat-trick bid to contend for back-to-back major wins in this week’s PGA Championship in San Francisco.

The Floridian is bidding to become the first player to win the same major three times in a row since Peter Thomson did it at The Open in the 1950s.

But while Rory McIlroy will tee it up in a stellar group with Tiger Woods and world No 1 Justin Thomas, Koepka has been drawn with Lowry and US Open champion Gary Woodland and he reckons the reigning Open champion will take some stopping at Harding Park.

"I like Shane,” said Koepka, who arrives in San Fransciso with his confidence in the rise after finishing second to Thomas in the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational in Memphis on Sunday.

"He's a funny guy. He's a character. I enjoy playing with him. I played a lot with him at the Floridian during lockdown. Got to play with him and another buddy, Stephen Grant [the former Shamrock Rovers strike, now a Florida based professional golfer] , maybe six, seven times.

"It was fun. I enjoyed the competition, trying to battle into something for being off for three months.

"Shane is a good player. Drives it really well. He hits a tight little draw. Great short game, and he's going to be right there come Sunday."

Former US Open champion Graeme McDowell has also been handed a good draw alongside two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and young gun Matthew Wolff.

Lowry has been trending in the right direction in recent weeks, finishing sixth in the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational on Sunday in a performance that bodes well for this season’s first major.

But the title favourite, with all due respect to world No 1 Justin Thomas, is clearly the defending champion who sounded an ominous warning to his rivals when took on Harding Park in cool conditions and declared that it "plays into my hands."

While Rory McIlroy will have his hands full in a high-octane draw alongside Tiger Woods and world No 1 Justin Thomas, Koepka will be going for a hat-trick of PGA Championship wins alongside pal Shane Lowry and US Open champion Gary Woodland.

"My game feels like it's in really, really good shape right now," said Koepka, who put months of indifferent form behind him with a runner-up finish behind Thomas in Memphis on Sunday.

Tiger Woods speaks at the Quickie Quote Area during a practice round of the 102nd PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park on August 4, 2020 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of

"I'm excited. This is a big-boy golf course. Got to hit it straight and put it in the fairway. It's going to be quite long. I think it kind of plays into my hands."

After winning in four of his last ten majors starts, Koepka is trying to become the first man to win the same major three years running since Peter Thomson won his fifth Open in 1958 and he's not losing sleep over having to play behind closed doors

"It's pretty obvious it's a major," he shrugged. "It's a big boy golf course. Tough place. Tough setup. I mean, I know it, so that's all that matters."

Woods feels the same about playing without fans and while he is lightly-raced, the game's ultimate thoroughbred insists he will have no problem focussing when he tees it up with McIlroy and Thomas.

"As far as energy [from fans] while I'm competing and playing, no, that's the same," said Woods, who played with McIlroy and Koepka in the Memorial in his lone start since the US lockdown was lifted and just his third event this year. "I'm pretty intense when I play and pretty into what I'm doing."

He added: "I don't know if anyone in our generation has ever played without fans in a major championship. It's going to be very different. But it's still a major championship. It's still the best players in the world.

"And hopefully I can put myself in a position where I can be in that position where I can feel what it feels like to have no fans and also coming down the stretch with a chance to win."

Cool temperatures will make Harding Park a challenge for Woods who will be trying to equal Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen by lifting the Wanamaker Trophy a fifth time.

At least he has been given an early-late tee time, which will allow his ailing back time to recover between rounds, should he need it.

"I think that for me when it's cooler like this, it's just make sure that my core stays warm, layering up properly," Woods said.

"Talking to some of the guys yesterday, they were laughing at their TrackMan numbers already. They don't have the swing speed or ball speed they did last week. It's just the way it is. It's going to be playing longer… With this marine layer here and the way it's going to be the rest of the week, the rough is only going to get thicker, so it's going to put a premium on getting the ball in play."

Woods has always insisted he doesn’t turn up just to make up the numbers but when asked if he had a feeling at the 2019 Masters that it was going to be his week, he pointed out that he’s only felt unbeatable a few times in his career.

“Well, there's probably only been, what, two -- maybe three times where I knew that all I had to do was keep my heartbeat going and I was going to win the tournament. '97, I felt pretty good at Augusta and then Pebble Beach in 2000, and then obviously at St. Andrews the same year.

My game was clicking on all cylinders for maybe the week prior. The week of it got a little bit better and just had to maintain it the rest of the week. Those were rare exceptions. It hasn't happened to me that often in my career, non-major or major, but those three weeks in particular, I just felt really good and had control of every single shot shape, distance, feels around the greens, putter. I had everything rolling.”

Given his lack of competitive rounds, Woods said he’d been working hard at home, and was pleased with the “changes” he’d made.

Asked what those changes were, he flashed his famous smile.

“Well, I'm not going to tell you that.”

With the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs to come, followed by the US Open and the countdown to the Masters in November, he’s just been preparing his body for those weeks.

“Well, I've been trying to prepare for the three,” Woods said of the majors and his bid for No 16. “You know, trying to figure out my schedule and training programmes and playing prep and the things I need to work on for each major venue. It's just in a different calendar order and different time of year.

“But this is a big run for us coming up here. I've been gearing up for this, and looking forward to the challenges of not only this week, but obviously the Playoffs and a U.S. Open and then the Masters.”

There’s no question that Harding Park, which he played often when in college at nearby Stanford, is a course that has his attention despite its lack of length.

"It's not as long. It's a par-70; it's not as long numbers-wise, but the ball never goes very far here. It plays very long, even though it's short on numbers.

"This golf course in particular, the big holes are big and the shorter holes are small. It can be misleading. They have; pinched in the fairways a little bit and the rough is thick; it's lush. With this marine layer here and the way it's going to be the rest of the week, the rough is only going to get thicker, so it's going to put a premium on getting the ball in play. "I'm still a bit surprised that the surrounds are not as fast as they are and they're not cut short and tight, but they are grainy. Into-the-grain shots, where the balls are popping in and rolling out. "Down grain you can spin pretty easily and you can spin it either way. It's going to be a test, with the overhang of these cypress trees and the ball -- there may be a couple lost balls here; cut a corner and ball hangs up there, that could happen very easily here and has happened and I'm sure will this week as well." Can he win? "Of course," he said grinning. As for Jon Rah, the big Basque is looking to bounce back to form after losing the world No 1 ranking to Thomas. "I assure you that on Sunday, I was more annoyed about how badly I'd played that week than losing the world No 1 spot," Rahm said. "It's as simple as that. In the end, I lost it because I played badly but this is a new week and I can become No 1 again."